It lives in poor soil, where nutrition is scant,
So it learned its energy never to waste
By action deliberate, never in haste:
It has evolved a neat adaptation
By trying to measure an insect's vibrations
As on its sticky and sensitive petals,
As they close in on it, to feed it settles.
The plant makes certain an insect is there
By counting reactions of its sensitive hair,
And unless there are two signals in twenty seconds,
It's a false alarm, the clever plant reckons,
And does not respond. It assumes it's debris,
Carried at random on the evening breeze.
But if the repeated signals endure,
The petals, like jaws, close, and the food is secure.
But that is not all: It a system evolved,
To provide just enough enzymes, the food to dissolve,
By measuring the strength that its prey
Uses, in its attempt to struggle away.
Thus Venus Flytrap researchers astounds,
It lacks a nervous system, but it learned to count!